The Witches of Barrow Wood by Kenneth Balfour Page B

then collapsed.
    It was approaching evening when Clare decided to go and check on Sam. She had hardly noticed him, and it was unlike him to be so quiet. If nothing else, he would have been down to the kitchen to fetch supplies for the adventures that he created in his bedroom with his toys. She knocked on his door and entered, and was shocked to find the room empty. She darted down the stairs into the living room and woke John from his slumber.
    “John, John, have you seen Sam? He’s not in his room,” said Clare, sounding a little panicked.
    John started to stir. “Sam? I haven’t seen him all afternoon.”
    “Well, he’s not here!” said Clare, running out of the door to look outside.
    Clare literally sprinted around the cottage shouting Sam’s name, but he was not there. John followed shortly behind, tucking himself in as he went.
    “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon, don’t worry!” said John, confident that Sam would be back shortly.
    “I’m calling Harry’s mother!” said Clare.
    Clare went inside the cottage and phoned Harry’s mother. Harry was Sam’s closest friend, and they always sat together at school and were always getting up to mischief together. The phone rang for a while and then Belinda answered. Clare explained that her son had gone missing and was hoping that he was out playing with Harry. Belinda said that she hadn’t seen Sam all day. Clare thanked her and put down the phone, and then immediately called the police, who said that they would be there within the hour. Clare paced the cottage, wishing she had spent more time with her boy, and then maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
    John went over and put his arm around Clare’s slim waistline, and then he leaned forward and gently kissed her cheek. Clare was taken by surprise by his kind affection and leaned into him, taking comfort. She pulled back her long brown hair from her face and sighed. Her energy was running low, and she wanted so much to see her little boy again.

    ***

    Eldrin was an age-old witch – she had been around since the fifth century. Her evil twin sisters concocted a very powerful spell that was known to only a few and long since forgotten. It was a spell to give all three sisters a very long life, but they got more than they bargained for – they became immortal and cursed with ugliness, sentenced to an eternity of self-loathing and despair. The evil twins wreaked havoc when they were mortal, abusing their inherent gifts of witchcraft, murdering without pity and living by the code ‘Take what thou shalt want’. A life of ugliness, self-loathing and despair made the slaughter of all living things all the more appealing to the two twins. Eldrin suffered the curse, too – although she was kind, a trait that her ugliness hid well.
    After hundreds of years of slaughter, Eldrin could bear it no longer. She sought to put an end to her evil sisters, but the only way to kill an immortal is to behead them. One night, when the evil twins slept, Eldrin hacked off their heads with a sharpened axe. They were now buried close to where Eldrin lived and their heads were buried there also, but the heads were locked by chain and key in an unbreakable metal box. If the heads were ever reunited with the bodies, they would once again live, and they would go on a killing spree so terrible that no one would live to tell the tale. It had been five hundred years since Eldrin had decapitated her sisters, and it had haunted her every day since, but there was one thing she knew for sure – her sisters could not be allowed to live, ever again.
    Eldrin was short and stocky. She had pale green skin, a crooked nose, long, jet-black messy hair, and long yellow teeth like tombstones. She also had nails like a parrot’s beak, like steel and very, very sharp. Her eyes were grey and bloodshot, and her breath was a foul stench.
    Eldrin sensed little Sam in the woodland and when she found him collapsed by a barrow, she immediately cast a spell,